I love power-ups. I really miss them in modern gaming where they seem to appear a lot less except in titles that throw back to the 8 and 16 bit eras. There were pretty much always silly and fun, they weren’t about adding a tactical dimension to a game or adding a new layer of depth to a title. They were just really simple ways to add a bit of variety to gameplay and didn’t really require much though on the part of the player.
The question is what happened to them? Power-ups used to feature in so many games, and now they’ve all but vanished. I think a major part is that they’re so simple. As we’ve progressively moved to more and more realistic and complex games power-ups feel a little out of place. You can’t imagine playing a title like Call of Duty or Halo and walking into a floating block to upgrade your gun. Sure there’s not a huge difference between that and picking up a gun from a fallen enemy, just picking up a gun seems far less gamey than having a block grant you the upgrade.
Of course the other big issue with power-ups is you can’t really integrate them into the natural progression of a game. In modern gaming you slowly earn skills in a fairly natural feeling way. You may start out with only the ability to punch someone, and slowly build up to being able to fire lightning from your finger tips or run up the side of the building. Whether you chose your upgrade path or new skills are laid out for you it’s always a gentle progression. T
hat’s pretty much the exact opposite to what power-ups give you, a sudden jump upwards in power. Level designers can make sure that power-ups are distributed throughout levels in a way that encourages players to move forwards in a more controlled way, but it’s still a very different method to the more scripted introduction of powers and abilities in modern games.
I’m not quite sure where to come down on this issue. A lot of modern games just wouldn’t work with power-ups, changing mechanics are just a part of an evolving medium. However I still miss them, they really were a lot of fun to use and making a particularly tricky jump to get a new power-up was a very rewarding experience. What are your thoughts?
stonyk
I loved Heavy Rain but that would have been the perfect game for a ‘Speed’ power up so you could run quickly.
BlackWidowShirt
Blur anyone?
slates16
How about Drake having a few expressos and going into some sort of hyper active mode!
Danza Di Fuoco E Ghiaccio
The only games I know that enables you to throw deadly laser beams is Dragonball, Gundam and Littlebigplanet (if your’re awesume).
Then again a Kamehameha is not a power up unless you raise your power of course.. which would probably also apply to Wing Zero’s Buster cannon when playing Dynasty warriors :/
Dany2Step
yeah unreal tournament is the only game that springs to mind for this gen.
woulnt be too hard to work them in though, infact i cant think of any game outside realistic sports games where they couldnt be worked in.
Origami Killer
i like blur with power ups and also midnight club 3 on ps2, it just makes the racing funner (if thats a word). also old school on cod 4 was very fun to play and out of he norm of fps’s.
Qurx
i think you meant… “more fun” instead of funner :P
and idk if i miss them that badly…
power ups can be fun… but in competision they can be annoying… halo has the invisabilty and over shield powerup… and some ppl just keep grabbing them… of course that isn’t a stupid thing to do… but imo it takes the fun away a little… since for some it just becomes a race to the powerups to be able to win…
Charmed_Fanatic
Power-ups are awesome in games, makes it that little bit more special gameplay